Kindergarten News

Curriculum Update

Literacy: For the first six weeks of school we are using Kindergarten Jump Start
curriculum. Each day students are exposed to high quality literature. They will
focus on one letter of the alphabet at a time and learn the sound and how to write
words using that letter.  They are introduced to concepts about print and practice
the skills of being a reading, writer, and illustrator.

Math: This month in math we are practicing daily mathematics routines. We are
learning how to count and keep track of the days of school. We are practicing the
days of the week and months of the year. We have begun to keep track of the date
on our classroom calendar. We are also collecting, recording, graphing and analyzing
weather observations on our daily weather graph. These routines will continue
throughout the school year as part of our “Everyday Math” program. Over the
course of the year, children will engage in many hands-on activities related to
a range of math topics, including counting, numeration, operations, geometry,
and measurement.

Centers: Fine motor centers with a focus on ABCs and shapes using clay, scissors,
and math manipulatives.

Integrated Studies: Classroom Community, Weather

Important Dates

Sept 20- PTO meeting @5:30 in the Media Center

Sept 26- Early Release Wednesday

Oct 5- Field Trip to Merrill Auditorium

Keep In Touch!

Mrs. Kalloch: kalloj@portlandschools.org

Ms. Nealey: nealej@portlandschools.org

Mrs. Burke:

burken@portlandschools.org

Mrs. Gallagher

gallac@portlandschools.org

Garden Harvest

Kindergarten helped to harvest potatoes and leeks for the upcoming Maine Harvest Lunch Week. We learned that potatoes are a major crop in Maine and that they grow below the soil, they are called tubers and have a very large stem that grows above the soil. 

      

We had to dig up the potatoes and then rinse them in a bucket to get the dirt off, we harvested potatoes of many different sizes.

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Leeks are in the onion family and grow above and below. We can eat the white part that grows underground and the light green part above the ground. The leeks were sometimes hard to harvest, the roots didn't want to let go of the soil!

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Maine Harvest Lunch Week is September 17-21 and a yummy potato salad that we helped to harvest will be on the menu!

Off To A Great Start!

We are entering day 5 of Kindergarten and we are off to a great start! We are focusing on a letter each day and doing fun activities to help us learn the letter name and sound. We are also focusing on developing and strengthening our small muscles to become better writers!

       

We're writing words that start with the letter of the day! We are also being exposed to sight words, such as can, is and me,  that will help us with reading in kindergarten.

Ripping paper and using scissors both help with our small muscles ( fine motor) to becoming better writers!

Making playdough letters and belly writing with our friends. We know that our letters start at the top!

In math we're talking a lot about shapes and sizes. We LOVE pattern blocks and all the cool things that we can make with them.